Oregon baseball fared well on day two of the MLB Draft, June 9. As projected, Juniors Garrett Cleavinger, Josh Graham and Mitchell Tolman, were the first Ducks taken off the boards.
The Baltimore Orioles selected Cleavinger in the third round with pick No. 102. The left-handed closer had nine saves and a 1.58 ERA in 40 innings in 2015. As a freshman he finished with a 9-0 record and team-best 1.24 ERA, while striking out 57 in 43.2 innings. Cleavinger set the Oregon all-time record for appearances this season with 107.
The Atlanta Braves chose Graham with pick No. 120 in the fourth round. Graham spent time at catcher, designated hitter, reliever and starting pitcher for Oregon in 2015. He found his niche as the Sunday starter down the stretch of the season, tossed nine innings in Oregon’s win over No. 1 UCLA and finished the year with a 2.63 ERA in 65 innings. The Minnesota Twins selected Graham in the 22nd round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
The Pittsburgh Pirates nabbed Tolman with pick No. 217 in the seventh round. Tolman posted a .315 batting average in each of his first two seasons as a Duck and led the offense with a .325 batting overage and .457 on-base percentage in 2015. Tolman broke four Oregon all-time records in 2015: consecutive starts, career doubles, career RBIs and career multi-RBI games.
Scott Heineman, Cole Irvin, Conor Harber, Shaun Chase and Phil Craig-St. Louis also may hear their names called in the draft’s later rounds.
Since manager George Horton took over the baseball program in 2009, 30 of his players have been drafted, including starting pitchers Jake Reed and Tommy Thorpe in the fifth and eighth rounds last year. A record eight Ducks were chosen in the 2011 Draft, including four in the first seven rounds.
Seventeen former Oregon Ducks are currently playing professional baseball: Zack Thornton of the New York Mets organization is in Triple-A, five are in Double-A, two in Class-A (Advanced), three in Class-A, two in short-season A, one in Rookie League, two in the Independent League and one in the Canadian American League.
Three more Ducks were taken on day three of the MLB Draft.
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